CHAPTER VIII.
———There I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to the extremest point
Of martial daring.
Richard II.
Even Lucas Beaumanoir himself was affected
by the mien and appearance of Rebecca. He
was not originally a cruel or even a severe man;
but with passions by nature cold, and with a high,
though mistaken, sense of duty, his heart had
been gradually hardened by the ascetic life which
he pursued, the supreme power which he enjoyed,
and the supposed necessity of subduing infidelity and eradicating heresy, which he conceived
peculiarly incumbent on him. His features relaxed in their usual severity as he gazed upon the
beautiful creature before him, alone, unfriended, and defending herself with so much spirit
